


A Christmas Gift

by disasteratsea



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Pre-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:00:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21929377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disasteratsea/pseuds/disasteratsea
Summary: Natasha stops by to give Steve his gift.
Relationships: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov
Comments: 4
Kudos: 61





	A Christmas Gift

**Author's Note:**

> This can be read as pre-romance or just as platonic.  
> Happy Holidays.

It wasn’t his first Christmas out of the ice, but it was the first Christmas he’d really been aware of. That first year he had been in such a state of shock that the holiday had gone by without Steve really noticing it had been there at all. He’d been busy coming to terms with his situation, trying to wrap his head around the world he’d woken up in.

This year he noticed the change in music in the grocery store, and the sudden increase of gingerbread everything. The lobby of his building was decorated with poinsettias and a tree covered in lights and tinsel. And there was just so much glitter. Christmas was everywhere he looked, and Steve didn’t quite know what to do with himself. He used to go to Christmas dinner at the Barnes’s, they’d all go to mass together and later sit around the radio and listen to A Christmas Carol. The girls would rope Bucky into braiding their hair and they would tell them stories while their parents played cards. Back then there hadn’t been a lot of money in their pockets, so Steve would scrounge and save for something small to give his mother or make her something.

It was two days before Christmas, and Fury had given him time off. Steve was wishing he hadn’t. Normally he would try to keep himself busy, but there was no where to go that wouldn’t remind him that he was alone. He’d wound up holing up in his apartment and putting on a documentary about polar bears to keep his mind occupied, but it only partially worked. He could smell someone down the hall baking shortbread cookies and hear the poppy Christmas music they were playing.

It was almost torture, and at the sharp knock on his door he prayed it wasn’t carolers.

There was a feeling of pure relief when he saw it was Natasha, bundled up in a warm coat and scarf. There were snowflakes in her hair that hadn’t melted yet, and her face was slightly pink from the wind outside.

“You’re looking mighty jolly Cap.” She grinned. He was wearing sweats and a hoodie, nothing jolly about him. She pulled her knitted hat off and shook it out, her normally perfectly styled hair rising with the static from it.

Steve smiled at her in spite of himself. “What are you doing here? I thought you were off at some fancy resort in Europe?”

She had told him the last time he saw her that she spent her Christmases being pampered at an isolated spa in the alps. “You should try it sometime; might help you loosen up a bit.” She had said with a wink.

“Flying out tonight. Just came by to give you your present.” She held out a gold coloured gift bag and gave it a little wiggle, a fine dusting of glitter fell to the floor. No doubt her car would need cleaning if she’d driven it over, Steve thought.

Natasha seemed oddly excited, which made Steve both curious and suspicious. Gently he took the bag from her and gestured for her to follow him into his apartment. She’d been there a few times before, but he could feel her eyeing the space none the less.

He led her to the sofa and twisted around to grab the lone newspaper-wrapped gift from the end table.

It was the only gift he’d gotten for anyone. They had worked together for some months, and Natasha was the closest thing he had to a friend. He’d spent hours debating whether to give it to her or not, unsure if she would like it or if it would even be appropriate to give her a gift. But Natasha had come to him with a gift of her own, so Steve felt it would be alright. She caught the package he tossed to her with deft hands, flipping it around to inspect it.

Suddenly he was nervous. “If you’re trying to read the news on there, I’m afraid it’s a little out of date.”

When in doubt, Steve had decided in his youth, he could always rely on his mouth to cover it up. Of course, it had gotten him into quite a bit of trouble in the past, but Natasha always seemed to enjoy his dry humour.

She turned the present around a few more times before delicately running her nail under the edge to lift the tape. Setting the paper aside she grinned at the mug he’d gifted her.

“Did you make this?” She asked, pointing at the cartoon version of herself that decorated the white mug. The figure wore a simplified version of her uniform and leaped across the smooth surface with guns drawn.

He felt the heat rush to his face. “Well, you’re kind of hard to get a read on. But I know you drink tea.” And she was. Natasha shared so little of herself that even after months of working closely with her, Steve couldn’t say he knew anything about her personal life. Yet she had inserted herself into his so easily. It figured, that as a spy, she would be a master at keeping her own secrets.

“Am I?” She asked lightly, but her smile had softened, and she cradled the mug close to her chest. “I love it. Thank You.”

The warmth on his face only spread and he knew that his ears were an embarrassing pink but he managed to choke out a _you’re welcome_ before Natasha was urging him to open his own present. He did so cautiously as she all but bounced in anticipation beside him. There was a copious amount of tissue paper stuffed in the bag and even wrapped around the gift itself.

It had a good weight to it, which made sense when he finally got all the tissue off and saw a stone with a spiraling impression in it.

“It’s a fossil for a fossil.” Natasha crowed. Steve sighed; she was as pleased with herself as she always was. He didn’t mind the old man jokes, but sometimes they were just so bad. He ran his thumb over the fossilized creature, it was actually a pretty good specimen and of decent size.

“How long have you been waiting on that one?” He looked up to see her beaming at him.

Natasha sighed “ _So_ long. You wouldn’t even believe how long. It was killing me.” She fell back so she was laying on the sofa, seemingly content to stay there.

Steve got up and placed the fossil on his bookshelf, right in the center of the high shelf. When he returned to sit heavily beside her Natasha was watching him.

“You don’t have any decorations up.” She said softly.

He hadn’t even bothered to get a tree. Steve only shrugged. The closest thing he had to any kind of decoration was the Christmas card Tony had sent him.

They watched the documentary in silence for awhile before she asked him what his plans for his time off were.

_You’re looking at them_ he almost said, “figured I’d catch up on some reading, maybe cross a few things off my list” is what he told her.

Her eyes narrowed at his obvious lie, but she didn’t contradict him, just went back to tapping away at her phone while they watched the mother polar bear try to teach her cubs to hunt. They were painfully cute and incredibly clumsy. 

Out of nowhere Natasha hopped up off the couch “we’re going out” she announced to Steve’s confusion.

Dumbfounded, Steve caught the coat that she threw to him. “What?”

Natasha swiftly turned on her heal and repeated herself. “We’re going out.”

She led him out to her car. The corvette was off the road in the winter, and Natasha was instead driving a Jeep that indeed had glitter on the passenger seat. “Where are we going?” Steve piled in beside her, glad that the jeep had more room for him to spread out in.

“Shopping. We need supplies.” The seriousness of her tone in comparison to her earlier giddiness threw him.

“Supplies.” He repeated.

Glancing at him as they stopped at a red-light Natasha elaborated. “Baking supplies, Steve. For making cookies. We need hot chocolate too. And something for dinner.” This really only added to his confusion.

“Wait, hold on,” Steve turned in his seat to face her. If he wasn’t sitting he would have put his hands on his hips. “Why are you talking about cookies and dinner? You have to catch your flight.”

Steve’s voice was worried, but Natasha only shrugged. “I’ll go after Christmas. Haven’t had a staycation in awhile anyway.” _No big deal_ her voice seemed to imply, but it was a pretty big deal as far as he was concerned.

All the air left his body then and his shoulders sagged. “Nat,” he said softly “you don’t have to do that.”

There was a small part of him that desperately wanted her to though, that warmed at the idea that he wouldn’t be alone.

Natasha sent him one of those crooked smiles of hers. “It’ll be fun. We can watch the extended Lord of the Rings, maybe cross a few things off that list.”

That part of him, the one that wanted her to stay, thrilled. Steve felt his heart warm to bursting. “We’ll have to pick up some popcorn then.”


End file.
